Rainbows and Roses
by Anya Maygo
Summary: Here's the sequel for "Hypnotic Speeds and Color Wheels." Trouble has come up, and the fox-boy and camouflaging girl have to deal with it. Will Kamiko ever get to trust Kurama's demon side?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

* * *

Kamiko gently set down her spindle and looked at the loose skein of brown threads. Actually, calling them 'threads' was a misnomer; they were just barely too thick to properly be called thread, but thinner than the thinnest marketed yarn. She sighed and shook out her hands. "I knew getting all of that done would be tricky, but at least I finally got around to it." Then she set up a wood structure on Machiko's side of the room in its largest form, which took up about half the wall. "Let's see…how much of this do I have…"

The end result was she started weaving a piece of cloth that was five feet square. "I'm amazed that it took me this long to get around to weaving Yusuke's cut hair from when he'd gone totally demonic!"

She wove until her coloration had turned completely brown. That was actually a game Kamiko enjoyed playing; every time she was weaving with a thread that wasn't spun from her colorless hair, she would weave until her hands had turned the same color as her threads, and then she'd move the color to some other point on her body. The way she knew she'd been weaving long enough when she was doing that was when she had no other place to put the color. Kamiko was always aware of her coloration, just in the back of her head.

Just as she was putting away her leftover threads, she heard a knock on her door. "Kamiko?" Her mom called through. "You've got a visitor."

Kamiko looked at her still-brown hands and started thinking her color back to her chosen skin tone. "Who is it? I was weaving, and…not with my own hair." There was a very small number of people she could greet at the door totally brown.

"It's Suichi."

Kamiko strode briskly over to the door and opened it with a smile, fully aware that her hair and demon-half were still brown. "Sweet!"

"He's in the kitchen."

She considered skipping to the kitchen while her hair and fur returned to her standard golden, and then sadly discarded the idea. Her clawed feet just didn't lend themselves to skipping, and she wasn't about to trade to her human form. There was no point: Suichi, aka Kurama, already knew she was a demon; he was one himself, just reborn as a human.

So she settled for a confident stride, her long tail swishing behind her as it returned to gold.

She and Kurama had dated for a few years now, and Kamiko was starting to wonder if anything was going to come of their relationship. Sure, she considered him a boyfriend, and by a passing remark she heard at school she knew he considered her a girlfriend, but…

Then she entered the kitchen.

Her mother had said she'd put Kurama there. She hadn't said that she'd been playing with the photo albums at the time. Kurama was flipping through them.

"Hi, Kurama!"

Kurama looked up, and his smile set rainbows in Kamiko's heart that she was amazed weren't printing themselves on her skin. "Kamiko. I'm glad to see you're well and…" his smile turned amused, "keeping busy."

She glanced to one side at her hair, which was slowly returning to gold from brown. "Ah, yeah. I was weaving with brown threads. So what have you been up to?"

"Studying, mostly." He turned another album page. "Your mother told me that she developed all these pictures herself."

"Those are _those_ photo albums? Um, yeah, back when we were that age, she wanted a record of our lives, but she couldn't trust anyone else with that film because of the content. She didn't start letting other people develop her pictures of us until we'd gotten the hang of our human forms, and even then, she still tended to develop them herself." She walked over to see the pages he was looking at. Almost immediately she winced. "Yeah…that's why I go by a skin tone between Machiko's two normal shades with golden fur and hair."

The picture was of her and Machiko as babies in their halfway states, both holding toys and staring at the camera. Machiko didn't look much different in coloration from how she did in the present day, maybe her stripes were a bit wider. But Kamiko was completely off-white, except for her outright colorless hair. And what shade the 'off' was, was impossible to tell. Her purple eyes just about exploded from that face at the camera, they were so bright and colorful compared to their dull background.

"Machiko calls that color 'off-white in the worst way.' I agree with her." She twirled a lock of hair around her finger.

"It's unusual, yes. Do you ever return to that color?"

"Erm…almost never." She glared at the picture. "You can't even tell that I have eyebrows or eyelashes in that picture! Sure, those are faint to begin with on a baby, but at least you can tell in part for Machiko!" Even Machy's eyebrows were black-and-white striped, and the black bits were visible in the picture.

"You really dislike this picture, don't you?" Kurama turned the page.

Kamiko sighed. "I just…don't like being reminded that my original color scheme is so…bland and boring. I'm glad I'm a chameleon where colors are concerned, because I like bright colors. Even back when I was coloring myself at five to fit in better with human kids, I didn't get the hang of coloring my eyelashes until I was thirteen. Mother actually had to put mascara on me to make my eyelashes looked normal so I wouldn't get teased!"

He stared at her. "You wore makeup when you were a child?"

She covered her face. "Mom made me swear not to tell anyone about it at the time, but yes. She knew, thanks to my responses to conflict in books and movies, that if I was teased I'd change color. So, rather than risk my revealing my big secret by turning blue as well as bursting into tears, she gave me a small secret."

Kurama put his arm around her waist and pulled her close. "I will admit, if you suddenly decided to revert to the colors you were born with, I would have to adjust to it since I've gotten used to seeing you in this way. But I would still think you're beautiful, because it's not just colors that make beauty."

She blushed shyly as she lowered her hand. "Thanks – ooh," she saw the next picture in line. "That one's not much better."

Kamiko was sitting on a blanket patterned with hearts and staring at it in amazement, and every visible patch of skin had turned to the same color and pattern as the blanket.

"That's why you never catch me wearing patterned fabric. Mom had discovered that I tended to turn the same colors as something new at that age, and so she made an entire montage of me sitting on differently-patterned blankets with their patterns ending up on me." She covered her face with her hand; the glimpse of her skin that she got before her sight was blocked told her that her hand had turned her embarrassment-bright-red. "She's tried to get me to do that recently, and I've told her I'd sooner move to Demon World than sit through a photo shoot like that."

She heard the book close, and then felt Kurama's other arm behind her shoulders. Then he spoke into her ear. "I won't say I won't ever ask you to do something like that, but I can promise that I won't ask without a very good reason. You're just too precious a treasure to be treated like that."

She'd been enjoying that right up until the word 'treasure.' She flinched, sensing a streak of white blazoning right before Kurama's eyes.

And Kurama must have seen it, because he let go. "Kamiko, what's wrong?"

She turned to face him, trying to throttle that white streak out of her hair again. "Sorry, it's just…well…I had a dream back before the demon tournament. A dream where…Yoko called me a treasure."

Kurama studied her for a second. "That wasn't all that happened. That in and of itself isn't enough to qualify for that white."

Kamiko locked eyes with him. "What if I told you that that dream happened the night following Hiei marking Machiko as his mate?"

Kurama's eyebrows shot up into his bangs. "Ahh…"

She heard it in his tone. He _thought_ he knew, but he wasn't sure. She sighed. "That dream has blazoned itself into my brain." She caught hold of his hands and looked at his eyes. "This is probably rated-M, but you're still a fox-demon so I think you can take it. I'll try to get it out of first-person, though."

* * *

 _Yoko Kurama approached Kamiko. His golden eyes were fixed directly on her. She was trying to hide, for something about his gaze was unnerving, and yet he could see her anyway._

" _You can't hide from me," he said as he reached out a hand with delicate sharp nails towards her. "I will always be able to find you. You are the most beautiful treasure a thief could ever hope to steal."_

 _She moved to get out of his range – but not soon enough. He caught her shoulder and lowered the two of them to the ground, placing her on her back. Dream-logic, she had her wings, which meant that she couldn't get up, and she really couldn't get up after he settled down over her._

 _He caught her wrists and anchored them over her head, and she started thrashing her head back and forth, trying to avoid him. But the end result was inevitable – his lips came down on hers._

* * *

Kamiko broke off the connection before the rest of the dream could be relayed, shivering.

Kurama was shaking a little, too. "And, ah, how far did your dream take you?"

"Um…" Kamiko rested her hand lightly on her chest. "Let's just say, I got woken up before Dream-Yoko got below the waist."

"…You're really afraid of my demon side, aren't you?"

She sighed. "Unfortunately, yes. I know I should at least accept the guy, but…every time I try to broach the subject with my emotional side, that stupid dream pops up in my memory."

Kurama held his hand out to her. She hesitated for a second, and then took it.

"I understand you're not ready. But you do believe that I won't hurt you, right?"

 _Not ready? What's that even mean, Crypto-boy?_ "Yes, I believe that _you_ won't hurt me."

 _It's Yoko I'm not sure about._

He pulled Kamiko back into his arms for a proper hug, and after a second she returned it, taking in his warmth and his scent. It was always so incongruous that a guy smelled like roses, but it worked for him.

Then something occurred to Kamiko. "Did you really come all this way to look at photo albums and see me?"

His breath ruffled her hair and tickled at her ear as he laughed softly. "Isn't seeing you enough?"

She knew she was going lavender and didn't care. Still… "Play up my ego all you want, Kurama, but is there another reason?"

Kurama was silent for a second. Then he puffed out a sigh. "There was another reason. Hiei called me. An issue has come up in Demon World, and my help is needed."

"Is anyone else going?"

"Yusuke has a wife to look after, and Kuwabara might be good, but…"

"But…demon blood would make this job infinitely easier, right?"

Kurama nodded.

Kamiko remained silent for a few seconds. Then she looked up at him. "So what was this visit supposed to be, a farewell?"

He took hold of her shoulders, pushed her back and looked her straight in the eyes. "An invitation. I want you to come with me back to Demon World."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

* * *

Kamiko blinked at him. "Is this a joke?"

"There's no other person I'd rather have at my back. Besides, you have a different way of seeing things than most demons, which may come in handy."

She sighed. "Kurama, you know I'm not a fighter."

"With any luck, you won't have to fight at all. Your task would be recon." Then Kurama cocked his head. "…Kamiko, is something the matter?"

She took a deep breath and glanced down. Her arms had lightened considerably, and thin almond-shaped eyes were just starting to open. _Why's my color always have to betray me?_ "Actually, going with you to Demon World would be a welcome distraction; I've been having bad dreams lately." The fact that they'd all had to do with Yoko wasn't something Kurama needed to hear right now.

"…Okay."

Kamiko sensed the eyespots widen a little bit more. That 'okay' had been said in a tone that implied Kurama wanted to talk more about it later, and she didn't want to go into it. "When do we leave?"

"Preferably as quickly as possible; Hiei isn't a patient man."

Kamiko laughed, her eyespots finally closing. "I guess the married life hasn't settled him down any, hm?"

Kurama smiled. "Considering it's your sister, no I don't think Hiei will settle down anytime soon."

* * *

After leaving a note, the two arrived in Demon World.

Hiei was waiting for them. "Kurama. About time you got here." His eyes roved over to Kamiko. "And I see you brought a tagalong."

"I thought Kamiko's abilities would be useful to us."

Hiei shrugged. "As long as she doesn't faint at the sight of blood, we'll be fine."

Kamiko's tailtip turned an angry red. "I don't faint at the sight of blood!"

Kurama's hand rested on her shoulder. "You didn't give me much detail in your summons, Hiei. What's the situation?"

Hiei shrugged again and waved them into the nearby stone building. "An upstart. Unfortunately, there isn't enough information to take him down."

"Do we at least have a name?"

"Zaro."

"Oh. Him. I remember him. He was always a thorn in my side. Where is he currently?"

"East of the Forest of Fools, he has a fortress."

Kurama's eyebrows lifted. "He didn't have one of those when I last knew him."

"Yeah, he's upgrading. That isn't the point. The point is that I know full well I can't take him down discreetly. You can, especially if you're bringing _her_ along."

Kamiko decided to ignore that. "So we go out there, see what he's up to, and take him down if it's something bad?"

"Something like that, yes."

Something in Hiei's tone made Kamiko pause. "Hiei? Is something…"

He studied her for a second. Then he hefted a sigh. "It's just…Machiko went out there to try to get some more information. She hasn't come back yet."

Kurama stared. "And that's the real reason you can't go after Zaro! Yes, it's because your skills don't lie in being discreet, but the reason discretion is necessary is because if Machiko was captured and you went in, she could end up killed!"

Hiei stuck his nose in the air. "So I happen to have a vested interest in my mate's survival!"

"Hiei, I'm helping."

That was all Kamiko said, but it got Hiei staring at her.

"If something happened to my sister, I would know it. I want to help her."

Kurama gently squeezed her shoulder. "I agree to this task, Hiei. We'll deal with Zaro and if Machiko's in trouble we'll rescue her."

Hiei's gaze flicked back and forth between the two. "Well, get on it, then." He turned his back on them. "I can form a diversion so that Zaro's attention is outside."

Kamiko stared at him, even as Kurama was pulling her out. She'd picked up an odd thought from him when he'd made eye contact with her…

"Kurama…did Hiei really only want my help?"

The fox-demon came to a stop. After a beat of silence, he answered. "Yes. He didn't want to contact you directly, but you were the only person he was publicly willing to trust in this matter."

"Because she's my sister?"

"Yes."

"But I'm not a fighter."

"He'd initially only wanted you to go in and get Machiko out so that he could kill Zaro himself. But then he realized that since he was going to be getting my help anyway, he might as well ask me to kill Zaro for him."

"Ah." After they'd walked in silence for a bit, she glanced at him. "So what should we know about this Zaro guy?"

"His talents mostly lie along the lines of charging energy into his own scales so that he can fire them."

"What's he look like? Do you know? I mean, he has scales…"

"I've seen him a few times. He…" Kurama stopped, tugging her to a halt. "It'd be easier if I just showed you my last sight of him."

With a sigh, she set her hands on his and stared into his eyes.

The picture she received unnerved her greatly.

 _Dangerously-clawed feet, a long swishing tail that had a barbed tip, wearing white pants…dangerously-clawed hands, large bat-like wings, metallic golden scales covering his entire body except for his very light blond hair, two-foot-long horns sprouted from his forehead and curved over his head to point backward…he only looked to be about Yusuke's age in the memory, and maybe another demon would consider him handsome, but his yellow eyes were hard._

Kamiko blinked to banish the image and stared at Kurama's face properly. "Kurama…why does he look like my sis and I would if we had scales instead of fur?"

He sighed. "There's barely any information on him, but I believe he's your cousin."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

* * *

Kurama wasn't sure if telling her that was a good idea. She was extremely quiet for the entire walk to a point near the fortress, and her colors were leaving no clues.

Hiei had stopped within sight of the stone fortress. "This is as close as anyone's been able to get without being noticed. You'll have to get to the fortress itself without being seen."

Kurama looked at Kamiko. "Do you think you can hide me all the way there?"

She came back out of herself and studied him. "Not while you're standing. We'd cast a shadow. If you're fine working an army crawl, though, I could manage what you ask."

"I can manage."

Then Kamiko cocked her eyebrow at him with a smile. "Okay…" her tail swished around and pointed at the ground. She didn't say another word, but she looked highly amused.

Hiei snickered. "Are you trying to act like your sister?"

She ignored him and waited, twitching her tail to jab the tip downwards a couple times.

When Kurama got it, he laughed softly. "Okay, okay." He lay down on his stomach, facing the fortress, and waited. _Evidently, the thought of me prostrating myself before her just tickled her._

He'd noticed some time back that when Kamiko and Machiko shifted form from their 'standard' to either their human or their demon forms, or back to their 'standard,' it made a sound. It was never very loud, but just the act of growing or absorbing wing bones caused some sound. And he heard that sound above him. He figured she was taking on her demonic form, because that was the only thing that made sense for being able to hide him.

Her hands touched his back and she paused. "No comment, Hiei."

"I didn't say anything."

Kamiko settled down on Kurama's back, curling up nearly in a fetal position so that her hands and clawed feet could all grip his waistband. Then her tail curved back and looped itself around Kurama's neck.

"Easy there…"

"I know what I'm doing, Kurama. …Hiei, can you tell me when my wings have hidden Kurama's head and legs?" She slowly started spreading her wings.

Kurama knew exactly when his head was hidden, as a golden wing fell across his vision. "That's good, Kami."

The wing stopped, and after another second Hiei spoke. "And your other wing is good."

"Okay, okay, let's see…" after a second or two of silence, suddenly Kurama could see the fortress again.

Studying the image carefully, Kurama judged that he wasn't looking through her wing; rather, the underside of her wing was showing him a picture of what was on the other side. "Does this mean I'm hidden?"

"Yeah. Let's go."

Kurama started moving. Kamiko wasn't all that heavy, and the picture on her wing adjusted itself to show his approach.

* * *

It took about five minutes for Kurama to reach the wall of the fortress. He'd just about made it to the wall when he heard Hiei yell out a challenge.

Kamiko snorted. "Demons…" she slipped off and straightened as he stood up.

"He said he was going to. Let's just get as far in as we can before anyone comes out."

They both ran in.

The corridor was simple in design: stone bricks with curved metal candle holders interspersed every ten feet.

As they ran, Kamiko let out quiet little bursts of sound. Kurama was entertained; it hadn't occurred to him that she could use echolocation.

They'd gotten a ways in before suddenly she fell back. " _ **Kurama, hit the wall!**_ "

Surprised, he spun and bumped into the wall, turning to look at her.

She leaped forward, her hands hitting the floor practically right in front of his shoes, and flipped up into a handstand that put her right in front of him, twisting her wings about to make sure that he couldn't be seen.

However, she didn't actually remain in a perfect handstand: she smacked into him and impacted the wall herself, causing the candle holder just off Kurama's left shoulder to fall off the wall!

 _It must have been loose to begin with!_

Kamiko noticed, though; her tail spun around and grabbed the candle base, changing its color to look like the other candle holders. Kurama reached out from behind her wing and caught the falling holder, pulling it into his hiding place.

Then both of them went still.

A small army of minor demons went rushing past them.

 _Well, well…so Zaro has managed to gather a few minions since our last encounter._

Then Kurama noticed that the line of Kamiko's back was trembling, and she was making an extremely quiet sound. Then something started appearing on her wing practically right in front of his eyes. They looked like letters made of fire.

" _owowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowwhenwilltheystopcoming…"_

Kurama glanced at the candle she gripped with her tailtip. Some melted wax had slid down.

Finally, the last of the demons made it past them and down the hallway. Kurama counted to five, and then tapped the side of her tail. "Here, I'll take that."

She closed her wings properly and twisted her tail around. Carefully spiking the holder through the candle's base again, Kurama eased her tail out of the wax and then grew some tiny vines to secure the holder back onto the wall. Then he caught her tail and studied the red-orange spot on the tip, flicking wax out of the fur and adjusting his grip as she tipped back to her feet.

"Ow…I hate wall holders."

Kurama ignored her words and set his mouth over the reddened spot. A glance revealed that lavender and neon pink were spiraling downward from where he held her tail. After a few seconds, he let go again.

"Uh-uh-um…thanks?"

"You're welcome. Now we'd better split up; we'll cover more ground that way. You look for your sister, I'll look for Zaro."

She nodded, returned to her standard form and dropped to the floor, vanishing from sight – almost. The reddened spot where the hot wax had been was still just barely visible.

Kurama used that mark to tell him where she was as she bounded off down the hallway and rounded a corner. Then he headed off down the opposite hallway.

 _Not being able to turn into the same colors as the walls, I'll have to be more careful to avoid detection._

He actually figured that Kamiko would find her sister very quickly. They had a bond that surpassed anything that any demon had: their twin bond.

* * *

He didn't know how long he was searching. For the most part, the rooms he glanced into were empty. Finally, though, he found a room that had a desk. A book rested on it.

He slipped in quietly and opened the book. It was a journal, a very recent one.

"So, Zaro, you've been playing with drugs to give yourself even more power." Kurama shook his head. "That way lies death." Turning a few more pages, he suddenly found an entry that just about froze his soul.

"…I need to find Kamiko."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

* * *

Kamiko slipped through the hallways, remaining completely invisible and tucking her tail under so that her slightly-burned tip was hidden. She was following her sense of where Machiko was.

Finally, she found a laser-gated room. Peering through the bars, she could see a cage that had her twin pacing around inside it like a tiger.

 _Bingo. Now let's see…_ She climbed up the stones of the wall and cautiously slipped between the wall and the vertical laser bar, entering the room. Rather than accidentally reveal herself to any possible guards, she decided to remain invisible even to Machiko.

As she crept closer, she studied the cage. It was just a simple metal cage. The lock was secure, and the three hinge bolts were on the outside, with bars just narrow enough to where there was no way Machiko could get at them.

 _But where she can't,_ I _can._ Kamiko crept across the floor and reached the bottom hinge. _Careful…_ She used her demon claws to work the first hinge-pin free. Once she got it loose, she considered it. _I'm keeping it hidden right now, but if I set it down, any possible viewers will see it._ She let out an internal sigh and slipped the pin into her mouth. _Bleah…whatever oil they used on these is nasty._ Standing up and staying close to the cage, she worked the middle pin out of its slot and slid it into her mouth as well.

Climbing up onto the cage itself to work free the final hinge pin caused the mostly-loose cage door to shift. And that got Machiko's attention. " _ **Kamiko?!**_ "

" _ **The one and only.**_ " Kamiko started fighting the last pin free.

" _ **You shouldn't be here! You shouldn't have come!**_ " And with that thought came truckloads of subtext and memories.

 _Machiko was pacing around in the cage, when in came one of Kamiko's classmates._ Yorin? What's he doing here?

" _Well, I certainly didn't expect my soulmate to have such an outlandish sister. Still, whatever works to get her to come to me."_

" _What makes you think you can have her even if she comes?" Machiko's voice was sullen._

" _Simple. In order to get you out of that cage, she'll have to remove those hinge pins. And each pin is coated with a hallucinogenic poison that only I have the antidote to; by the time she's obtained all three pins, her world will turn amazingly hellish. She'll see me as a savior."_

" _You're kidding, right? You do realize I can tell her that as soon as I see her now that I know, right?"_

 _He stuck his nose in the air. "First of all, you'd have to see her. Second, these bars are fully capable of blocking demon senses. So you can't sense anything outside the cage until it's been opened. And you won't be able to speak mentally to her even after that, because the poison affects the mind." He started laughing, and strutted off._

 _Machiko had one last remark to make to his back. "I don't want you as a brother-in-law."_

Kamiko had just managed to work the final pin out. And then she stared at it in horror as everything her twin had just said to her penetrated. _If I'd put this last one into my mouth…I'd have…_

Then the pin turned into a small snake, which turned to look at her and reveal long fangs.

She flung the pin away, twisting her body and wrenching the door off its lock as she fell to the floor, and spat out the other two pins. Her eyes did track on them as they flew, and she saw even as the walls started writhing that they were no longer the same color as the pin that had turned into a snake.

"Ma…Machiko…"

That was all she managed to get out. Her sister understood perfectly. "There's a vent I'd been staring at for the past three hours. Grab my tail, we're getting out of here."

Kamiko turned and stared at the stripes, which were starting to move. "I…I don't know if I can. How fast was this stuff supposed to work?"

"He didn't say." The dizzying tail wrapped itself around Kamiko's wrist and she got dragged along. "But come on, stay with me. Your colors are going all weird."

"I'm not surprised…" That vent didn't look inviting, what with all the blood and slime and whatever else was leaking from around it. But that was probably a hallucination…right?

Machiko slipped in, towing Kamiko behind her. "Come on! At least tell me you didn't come in here alone!"

"I-I-I came with Kurama."

"Great! He can give you an antidote so that we don't have to ask that freak Yorin."

* * *

Kamiko had no idea how many turns they made before Machiko stopped. "Damn."

"Hiei's a bad influence on you, sis." Kamiko was trying to make light of the fact that her sister was starting to no longer sound familiar, and the echo in the vents didn't help.

"I found the way out, but…Yorin's out there, along with someone I've never smelled before."

"Well…" Kamiko blinked. She was starting to feel nauseous. "Th-there's no way I'm going to be able to fly after you. Kurama's here, so you won't be abandoning me to…to an unknown fate worse than death." She wished she hadn't said the word 'death.' "Just…go. Get back to Hiei."

Machiko looked over her shoulder. Her eyes seemed to have an unnatural gleam to them. Just a hallucination, right? "I don't want to leave you."

"Rip that vent grate off its screws and get out of here before I lose it and attack you already!"

Machiko's eyes got large. Then she spun to face the grate again.

Kamiko never saw past her sister what happened, but a terrifyingly loud crash sounded in the vent before suddenly Machiko's tail started dragging her forward.

"So you won't be able to follow me, fine, but you still need to _fly!_ "

They emerged into the light.

Kamiko's wings grew nearly of their own accord when she realized that she was going to fall, and she started trying to coordinate their movements to properly get air.

Then an explosion sounded, causing Machiko's tail to unwrap from her wrist.

Kamiko didn't look at her sister. She didn't want to see a monster in the striped girl's place. " _GO!_ "

She heard Machiko's wingbeats growing faint, before another explosion sounded in the room.

… _Is someone shooting a gun?_

Her flight had been doomed from the start. She fell from the air and smacked into a wall.

"Don't fear, my love, I shall always defend you and I have the means to save you!"

Kamiko turned to face the approaching owner of the voice, who she guessed was Yorin just by the fact that his shape was still human. "Were you shooting at my sister? I don't…I don't want you near me!"

"That was a monster, Kamiko. I had to rescue you from it!"

 _Does he really think I'm that far gone?_ She was going to say something to that effect. But suddenly something behind him caught her attention and she was riveted by it.

Whatever it was, it was metallic gold. And it was starting to glow…

Suddenly, Yorin's words were cut short with a choked gurgle as red spouted from his neck and chest, and he collapsed to the floor.

"Honestly, Yorin," a new voice cut through the air like a knife, "I was going to kill you anyway, but you encouraged me to do so now when you pulled that trigger. Machiko may not have interested me as her sister did, but she _is_ still family." Then she felt herself pinned by dangerous reptilian yellow eyes.

She could only manage to say one word. A name, one she knew had to belong to him.

"Zaro."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

* * *

"Zaro." Kurama entered the room. "Honestly, you really are a diva, aren't you?"

The golden demon spun around to stare at him. "Do I know…oh…you. I thought you'd died by now."

"Funny, a lot of demons have told me that." He glanced over at Kamiko, who looked like she was trying to camouflage and failing terribly. "What happened to her?"

Zaro waved a hand. "She got a dose of some of my herbals. She'll be fine after a few hallucinations and disorientation."

Kurama spared her another glance. She didn't look fine. "You're sure?"

"Would I really risk the safety of my future mate?"

That fixated Kurama's attention squarely back on Zaro. "I thought she was your cousin." He already knew the answer to this. But in order to help Kamiko, he had to become Yoko, and that took just enough time that he had to get Zaro talking.

"She is. However, she inherited the rare Chamo-Strait gene. One of those hasn't been seen in over five hundred years. They're said to have incredible amounts of power, and that one could rule Demon World if they so chose."

"But Kamiko would rather live as a human."

"Which is why she's going to become my mate: I've been improving my own genetics so that our child has a better chance of getting the same power."

Kurama heard an odd sound from Kamiko. It was like she was trying to throw up. At least it gave him a chance to direct the conversation back to her well-being. "What herbs did you even give her?"

"Xalvios. Extremely potent, and at their best for enhancement when put on the skin. One mustn't ingest it, though, as even a small dose can be fatal."

Kurama spared one more glance at Kamiko and noticed something. She was clearly listening to the conversation, and suddenly a single color overwhelmed for a full two seconds before she went back into rainbows.

White.

And that was when Kurama managed to become the Yoko.

* * *

" _One mustn't ingest it, though, as even a small dose can be fatal._ "

 _I'm going to die._ Kamiko tried to shove that thought away as she stared at the golden dragon and the silver-white fox battling with flashes of light and whiplashing plants. But it just kept jumping into her head. _It doesn't matter which of them wins, I'm going to die._

She had no idea how long the battle was going on. Everything was starting to spin. But then she blinked, and the golden dragon was on the ground and not moving while the fox was walking towards her, breathing heavily.

She tried to move, but her limbs weren't cooperating. And, in fact, her vision was starting to go dark.

The fox spoke to her, but his voice was extremely quiet. "Kamiko, hang in there. I know the antidote for that poison, and I have no intention of letting you die."

"Y-Yoko…I…" Was she even speaking aloud? She wasn't sure. "I…I tr…" She blacked out before she could finish the thought.

* * *

Kurama nearly had a heart attack when Kamiko's limbs gave out and her eyes shut. _I hope what she was going to say was "I trust you," because right now she has no choice._ Strangely enough, even though she was unconscious, her colors were still flashing through rainbows; the last time she'd fallen out of awareness, she'd vanished from sight as an instinctive protection. Had she really fallen unconscious?

Well, no worrying about that right now. Kurama had never crafted an antidote so quickly in either of his lives.

 _She would have needed the antidote either way,_ he mused to himself. _It's just that normally it would have been placed on the skin like a salve…_ he studied her hand, which through all the rainbows still had a discoloration on her palm. _…Which she'll also need…but what she's ingested is the more pressing matter._

Holding the antidote in his mouth, he pulled her into his arms. That prompted her to twitch, and her eyelashes flickered. It did occur to him that this might be a flashback of her nightmares, but he was going to worry about that later. He barely touched her chin with one hand, though, and her jaw unclenched.

 _She must have said that she trusted me. What little control over her own body she has right now, she's trying to hold onto that thought._ Abandoning any other thoughts of his own, he set his mouth over hers.

* * *

Kamiko hadn't really lost consciousness. However, she felt like she was suspended in a world of darkness and silence. All she had left was her sense of touch. How quickly was that poison supposed to work, anyway?

When clawed hands caught up and dragged her, she twitched. Then she realized she knew those hands. For all that there were long pointy fingernails, the hands were kind, only rough because their owner was frantic…for her.

 _Kurama._

She was pinned against a hard chest, and she felt those claws touch her chin.

 _He wants to…of course. I need…come on…_ she did her best to relax her jaw, even as the rest of her body rebelled to any attempt at obeying commands.

She must have succeeded, because she felt his thumb brush over her lips, parting them. Then his lips came down on hers.

She'd been worried that she'd feel like she had in her dream. She didn't. She felt herself starting to relax even before whatever Kurama had been holding in his mouth flowed into hers.

 _I was also worried that the antidote would taste as nasty as the poison. I should have known better…though I wonder, were roses really involved in the antidote, or is that just his personal touch?_

The 'kiss' part of what Kurama did ended fairly quickly, though she did feel him catch her wrist and then…had he just licked the palm of her hand? _Oh. That stuff was probably also on my hand from when I was holding those stupid pins, so he's making sure whatever amount of the antidote was still lingering on his tongue served the purpose of helping me._ And somehow she didn't feel anything negative about his licking her hand. She was having a hard time prompting any feelings, period, really.

She felt her hand drop again, and she tried to open her eyes. She'd attempted opening them before, but she hadn't been sure if she succeeded or not. This time, her vision flickered and cleared – well, almost cleared. Everything was still weaving and blurring in weird patterns. Apparently the hallucination part of what that toxin had done to her still needed to get out of her system. And then she saw Yoko. Her hallucinations gave him a strange, beautiful aura…and his pretty face was…filled with worry about her.

 _Don't worry,_ she wanted to say, but she just couldn't see that as being enough. Then a dash of humor crept in unexpected. "Did I die?"

She still couldn't tell if she'd said that aloud. Kurama reacted, though. He blinked, and for a second he looked concerned. "No…"

"Are you sure?" She tried to smile, but she wasn't sure if she'd succeeded. "Because you look like an angel."

A small laugh escaped his lips, and he pulled her into his arms in a proper hug.

She tried to move her arms to hug him back, but she couldn't get coordinated. _Ah, well._ She closed her eyes again with a smile.

* * *

Kurama heard her sigh next to his ear, and then she quit trying to move. He could still feel her heartbeat, though.

 _That antidote makes the recipient sleepy, so that they can finish expelling the poison in comfort._ What was more, her colors were returning to normal…to her "let's protect this skin's owner from danger while she's unconscious" normal. The Invisible Demon was in his arms.

And she still was in her demonic form. Carrying her out would be awkward.

Kurama returned to his human form and carefully slung her onto his back, catching up her legs about his waist. He felt a wave of exhaustion almost as soon as he did so.

"Heh…so that antidote causes weariness even when one is at full health. However…" he struggled to his feet, "…this is hardly the place for a nap." Kurama set off out of the fortress.

What he saw outside was chaos. Demon corpses were strewn everywhere, both dismembered and burned, and in the middle of it all were Hiei and demon-form Machiko, clearly having their version of a tearful reunion.

It looked like they'd taken out half the army by themselves, and that was after Hiei had taken out the first half alone; if Kurama had to guess, though, he suspected that it had been Machiko who started the kiss.

She was also the one to end it, though, as the moment she noticed him she ran over. "Did you end the bastard, Kurama?"

He wasn't surprised that she didn't ask if Kamiko was okay – she could probably sense that her twin was fine. Which was a relief, because he hadn't been sure the antidote would drag her back from whatever brink she'd landed on before he'd given it to her. If Machiko was calm, then…

"Yes, I killed him. And this isn't the most convenient form in which to carry your sister; is there any way to…lose the wings without waking her up?"

Machiko studied her sister. "Yes…I think it'll work even if she's unconscious…" Then she took proper charge. "First of all, get her off your back."

Kurama swung her around, going by touch to try to make sure he had hold of her waist, though that resulted in one of her wings on his head. Hiei snickered and then wandered over to help.

"Okay, now stand her upright and hold up her hands for me."

Both of them worked together to get her standing. Machiko walked over and set her palms against her sister's. Then she let her head droop forward, adjusted how her feet were placed, let her wings flop open and laid out her tail on the ground. "As soon as her color changes, you can let go," she told them as she closed her eyes, "I've got this."

For a couple of minutes, nothing happened. Or not much; all Machiko was doing was moving first one hand, and then the other, in slow movements.

Then, slowly, stripes started appearing on Kamiko's invisible arms. As more got striped, Machiko started doing more complicated movements.

As stripes appeared on her neck and head, Machiko tilted their heads upright, though she kept their eyes closed.

As stripes appeared on her legs and feet, Machiko adjusted the way they were standing so that balance was better.

And as her wings and tail gained stripes, Machiko started almost more of a dance, though neither of them took an actual step.

"I didn't know she could do this," Hiei remarked offhand to Kurama as they let go and stepped back.

"I didn't _know,_ " Kurama replied, "but I suspected they had something."

Then the twins' wings spread fully, their hands reached upwards for the sky, and their tails curled up and over like a squirrel's. It was an impressive picture, Kurama admitted.

"You think they can fly while doing that?" Hiei asked, though he sounded like he was just being rhetorical.

Then their fur receded from their upper halves, their horns slid back into their skulls, their tails each shrunk about a foot, and their wings shrunk away.

Suddenly, Hiei twitched. "Kurama, Machiko told me you need to hug Kamiko."

"What?"

"She's not speaking aloud because she doesn't want to risk waking her sister up with actual spoken words. She told me that normally the way synchronicity was ended was by closing their eyes, but…"

"But their eyes are already closed." Kurama suspected that the process was a bit more complicated than that, what with how long it took to get into sync to begin with, but the point still stood: while Machiko could switch off the synchronicity on her end, she couldn't turn off Kamiko's.

"She also said that in theory, I could cut off the synchronicity with the suggested method, but that because I'm…vertically challenged…" Hiei sounded like he was considering hitting Machiko for that, "…she wasn't sure how well it would work."

So he walked over, stopped right between them, and put his arms around Kamiko.

A couple of heartbeats later, the stripes vanished from Kamiko's fur, she disappeared from view again, and she went boneless on him.

Machiko sighed. "Well, now that that's done," she spoke as Kurama scrambled to catch Kamiko, "we should find a place to get cleaned up, and you can explain what was going on in there."

* * *

Kurama explained while he was lying down.

"Your cousin, Machiko, wanted to father the next king of Demon World. In order to do that, he needed to find a suitable mate. He chose Kamiko because of her rare genetics."

"She's his cousin just as much as I am!" Machiko protested.

"He didn't care. He just wanted power. And to that end, he kidnapped you and put a hallucinogen on the hinge pins of your cage to leave Kamiko helpless upon rescuing you." He tilted his head to look at the sofa, where only vague depressions in the cushions were betraying Kamiko's presence. "That she put those hinge pins into her mouth was something that nobody could have predicted, and nearly led to her end; that stuff, while being relatively safe to apply to the skin, is poisonous when ingested. I believe I only barely gave her the antidote in time."

Machiko also turned her gaze to the sofa. "Any idea when she'll wake up?"

"No. I gave her a really big dose of the antidote, and…" he blinked slowly, "as you can see, the antidote is quite the sleep-inducing drink. She could be out for several days."

Machiko strode over to the sofa and clambered onto the back. "I'll watch over her."

* * *

Kamiko stirred and opened her eyes. She felt like she was lying on a sofa, and opening her eyes confirmed that. Machiko was sprawled along the back of her sofa above her, asleep. Or at least, she looked asleep…yes, the energy that Kamiko was picking up along their twin bond said that the striped girl was indeed napping.

Then she attempted to move.

And she fell off the sofa.

That roused Machiko. "Hm…mom, I'm awake…" she fell onto the sofa, and then looked down. "Kami?"

Kamiko tried to unstick her jaw, but she couldn't quite manage it. She smiled up instead.

Machiko bounced up. "Hey, Hiei! Kurama! Kami's awake!"

Hiei walked in. He didn't look sleepy at all. "Hello, Kamiko. How are you feeling?"

 _Um, I'm having a bit of trouble unsticking my jaw and I'm still really sleepy, but otherwise I'm…fine?_

A tiny smile crept onto his face. He'd probably read her mind to catch that answer. "I'm not surprised that you're still sleepy; you were out for almost two weeks."

 _Two weeks?_ Mustering up a reaction to that was pretty much impossible. She tried to move, with limited success.

"Evidently you're still having coordination problems as well. Here." Hiei walked over and hefted her up into his arms. Kamiko's tail twined around his waist out of pure reflex – and partially twined down around his leg. "Hey, watch it or I won't be able to walk…Machiko, could you adjust that?"

Machiko laughed, caught her sister's tail and pulled the still-attempting-to-wind appendage to continue going around Hiei's waist instead.

 _Sorry. I'm not controlling that, really._

"I know you're not. Machiko does the same thing, and she explained how your tails often seem to have minds of their own." A smirk crept onto his face. "It can make things quite interesting in bed."

 _TMI, Hiei._

Hiei just laughed as he walked into the kitchen and set her into a chair. Machiko wandered past towards a kettle on the stove as Hiei worked at unwinding Kamiko's tail from his waist.

"I'll get you some tea. You look like you need it," Machiko said over her shoulder.

Kamiko bobbed her head forward in acknowledgement as Hiei encouraged her tail to wind around one of the chair legs. Her head falling forward informed her that her colors were an extremely faded version of her look of choice, causing her to look rather ghostly and see-through. That was normal for "conscious, but not even close to top alertness and mobility." _If there's mint or lemon tea, I'd appreciate that. No milk, two spoonfuls of sugar._

"Got it, sis."

Kamiko's head lolled to the side as she looked at Hiei, who was lifting her arms up to rest them on the table so that she wouldn't just fall out of the chair. _Where's Kurama?_

"I don't know. He wasn't in anywhere near as bad a shape as you were, so he was up faster."

A couple minutes later, Machiko gave her a cup. "Here. It's hot, so careful."

Kamiko slid her hands over to the cup, and let the warmth soak into her hands. She felt her sister's amusement as her hands shifted more clearly into focus with a warm orange-red (which wasn't quite the same shade as her "I've been burned" orange-red).

"Hey, Hiei," Machiko remarked as an aside, "see if you can guess what sort of tea I've made for her just by the color she turns after taking a drink."

Hiei and Kamiko let out almost exactly the same snort.

Machiko's dare wasn't a trick. Kamiko was full aware that first thing in the morning she barely had any color holds, and so her colors were very easily influenced by temperature or things she ate and drank.

One sip – and yes, it was hot – and Hiei spoke. "I'm going with mint."

Kamiko ignored them. Sure, he was right. Who cared?

* * *

After a few more sips, she heard a door open. Then a familiar voice drifted in.

"How's Kamiko doing?"

"She's awake, Kurama!" Machiko called happily.

Kamiko turned her head to the side and watched as Kurama walked in. Then she set her cup down and stood up to meet him.

Or that was the plan, anyway. Her tail was smarter than she was and refused to let go of the chair, knowing that she wasn't steady enough to stand yet. While she did gain her feet, she didn't have good balance and started toppling forward, going white.

Kurama stepped forward and caught her before she hit the floor, although the chair crashed down. Almost immediately, Kamiko's skin brightened into full solid wakefulness and changed to swirling patterns of bright embarrassment-red and lavender. "Sorry…I didn't mean to fall on you."

"Anytime. Are you sure you're all right?"

"Yeah…" Kamiko struggled her feet back under her and straightened again, trying to return her colors to something resembling her normal color palette.

Kurama's hands moved from her arms to her waist. "Kamiko…what's your opinion now regarding Yoko?"

Kamiko sensed that her colors changed, and she was surprised at what they came to: it was her off-white birth-color!

Kurama hesitated. "I'm…not sure what that means."

Kamiko thought about it for a minute, thinking about what her emotional reaction had been to the name Yoko. "I think…I think that since I've made a different color scheme my usual, my birth-color attached itself to an emotion so that I'd use it every now and again. And the emotion it picked was…trust."

Kurama let go and took a step backwards. "You're ready." Before she could ask what he meant, he knelt before her. "I hadn't wanted to push too hard, so I was waiting for just the right moment. Now my second question can actually be voiced." He pulled a small red box out of his pocket and opened it for her. Inside the box, nestled in a bed of dark green, was a sparkling ring that looked like its gold was made into intertwined roses, with a purple jewel nestled in the center of the largest rose. "Will you marry me?"

Kamiko turned lavender-gold swirled, with both colors just sparkling with iridescence as a surprised smile made it to her face.

* * *

 **A/N: Yeah, she accepts his proposal. I've gotten tired of this fanfiction, and since I'm working I don't have much time to write. Besides, my priorities are elsewhere. Her colors sparkling isn't new, actually: the stronger an emotion she has, it either goes matte (dark colors) or sparkles (bright to light).**


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